Employers Are Slower to Fill Job Openings These Days

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Job-seekers must survive a lengthier interviewing process than before the financial crisis and are being strung along for weeks or months without a yes or no, according to The New York Times.

They call it hiring paralysis. Data from the Labor Department shows that jobs which required an average of 15 business days to fill in 2009 take an average of 23 days now. Companies are scared to hire in case things head south again – many are still on shaky ground and don’t want to risk wasting money. So they’re still looking, but being much more thorough and only picking up people who are assets, not just to fill a gap.

That means more people are applying and fewer are getting hired. Jobs that used to take one or two rounds of interviews can now take three or four. There’s more background screening, more seemingly irrelevant tests. Here’s a depressing scenario video editor Paul Sullivan went through…

Like other job seekers around the country, he has been through marathon interview sessions. Mr. Sullivan has received eighth- and ninth-round callbacks for positions at three different companies. Two of those companies, as it turned out, ultimately decided not to hire anyone, he said; instead they put their openings “on hold” because of budget pressures.

The security guards actually thought he already worked there because they saw him so often. While it’s great news the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since 2008, those still looking are having an even tougher time than they were at the start of this mess.

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